The Wisdon Tradition and the Book of Job

The Wisdom Tradition in Israel faced the paradox of maintaining God’s mercy and justice in the light of Israel’s failures and suffering. The Book of Job is an eloquent expression of Israel’s grappling with the issues behind theodicy. The course begins with an exploration of Israel’s Wisdom Tradition in relation to the Ancient Near East, prophecy and cult in order to set a context for reading and interpreting the book in its entirety. The literary features and structure of the work provide a methodological lense for appreciating how the Wisdom Tradition in the Book of Job dealt with suffering, ethics, beauty and love. (Lectures, discussion, major paper; and for AD students, reading selected texts in Hebrew).